Mandatory pre-commitment could be a roadblock to online gambling standards

ELEANOR HALL: Online casinos have been illegal in Australia for more than a decade, but now a Government report is recommending they be legalised.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, today released his department's review of the Interactive Gambling Act.

Senator Conroy though says the Government won't consider allowing a trial of online gambling until all states and territories agree on national standards to protect consumers.

Simon Lauder has our report.

SIMON LAUDER: If you like to play games with real money it doesn't take long to find an overseas based service keen to take your credit card details. Many online casinos target Australia because there's no local competition.

The debate has always been whether allowing online casinos to operate here would increase problem gambling or introduce better standards.

Dr Charles Livingstone is a gambling researcher at Monash University.

CHARLES LIVINGSTONE: There is evidence to suggest that Australians are spending as much as $1 billion a year on offshore gambling sites and many of these are quite unregulated.

And you know, there are some risks associated with using those sites, including losing your money for one.

SIMON LAUDER: The Communications Department's review of the 2001 Interactive Gambling Act recommends a trial of online poker tournaments because that's considered to be of lower risk for problem gamblers.

It's also recommending that Australian providers be made to sign up to a national standard for harm minimisation and consumer protection, including a mandatory pre-commitment system for those who want to gamble online.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, says he will seek agreement from the states and territories and won't allow a trial of poker tournaments until standards are in place.

Dr Charles Livingstone says the Federal Government should just make the rules itself.

CHARLES LIVINGSTONE: Well I think the problem there is that some of the states, particularly the smaller jurisdictions like Tasmania and the Northern Territory, currently derive a fair bit of revenue from these gambling sources, from the already licensed betting operators, the bookies.

And they may see their revenue at risk by the implementation of effective, harm-minimisation measures including pre-commitment.

My concern is that it would get bogged down or come to a standard which was you know below that which we might regard as sufficiently robust, so there is certainly a problem with that.

SIMON LAUDER: What are the risks of going ahead with a trial of poker tournaments online if the standards aren't rigid enough?

CHARLES LIVINGSTONE: If the harm minimisation measures are not robust enough, then what we'll see is a host of young men who are enticed to gamble online who feel that they like it or who develop a gambling problem and if they are able to circumvent either the harm minimisation measures or simply to go offshore, then you know they will be bred, if you like, into the problem via the lawful sites and then simply go offshore to seek unlawful access to high stakes betting and so on.

SIMON LAUDER: The review of online gambling laws also seeks to address concerns about sporting integrity and match fixing. It proposes a blanket ban on ball by ball bets, known as micro-betting. But it recommends allowing exotic bets, that is, bets on events and outcomes within a game.

Dr Livingstone says that still leaves the potential for corruption in sport. The sports betting industry isn't happy either because it wanted more exotic betting to be allowed.

Chris Downy is the head of the Australian Wagering Council, which represents seven sports betting agencies. Mr Downy says punters should be allowed to place exotic bets after the start of a match using a computer or a smartphone. He says there will be more integrity if that's allowed in Australia.

CHRIS DOWNY: What that means is that Australians will continue to bet online, in play, with unregulated offshore operators who do not have these integrity agreements with Australia's major sporting codes.

So that's the weakness in this decision.

SIMON LAUDER: Just as the clubs industry fought and defeated the Federal Government's plan for mandatory pre-commitment for poker machines, Mr Downy says the sports betting industry is against the proposal for online gamblers.

CHRIS DOWNY: There's a huge blind spot in the Government's proposed regulatory model, because cash betting is still permitted without any of the controls that have been announced by the Government today.

And from our members' point of view, if the Government was going to be consistent, then there should be compulsory account-based betting introduced in the retail space as well.

SIMON LAUDER: The independent Senator Nick Xenophon has already attacked the federal Government's approach, saying waiting for the states and territories to come on board is a recipe for delay and inaction.